WARNING: There are spoilers ahead for the latest episode of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD.

The Secret Warriors

That was fast. Okay, I’m sure we haven’t seen the end of the Secret Warriors, but I thought it was odd that the writers spent so much time teasing the team only to break them apart after their first official mission. I’m not totally opposed to this storyline (I’m actually not opposed to it at all), but it’s a strange turn. That’s what I like about this show. As predictable as it can be at times, and as formulaic as the “Marvel way” is, the show still manages to throw you for a loop several times a season. This was one of those times. There are only four episodes left, so it’s understandable if we all thought these last few would focus on the Secret Warriors kicking ass and taking names. That would have been cool, but I think it’s even cooler where the story is going now.

Daisy

Along with the Secret Warriors being temporarily broken apart, I don’t think any of us saw this twist with Daisy coming. The next four episodes are going to be so big they get their own subtitle of Fallen Agent. This is a truly sad turn for Daisy. I’ve written over the past two seasons about her fears of abandonment and how she found her first true home with SHIELD and her first father-figure in Coulson. Now she’s being forced to betray all of that, which is actually sadder than if she chose to betray it on her own. It shows just how much of a pervasive parasite Hive can be. We know Daisy would never do something like this on her own, even if it meant risking her own life. But Hive has penetrated her consciousness so much that she’s now turning on the people she cares about the most, and that’s pretty damn exciting. She’s a full-blown SHIELD agent now, and she’s going to take all of her skills and powers and use them against Coulson, May, et. al. Even more exciting is the sense of danger this arc brings. I’m sure Daisy will make it through alive, but I can’t say the same thing for anyone else except Coulson. Everyone else’s storylines have felt like they’ve been wrapping up for a while now, especially May’s. A character is going to die, maybe more than one character. This is shaping up to be the most exciting arc of the whole series.

Road to Civil War

I’ve said before that there won’t be any significant tie-in to Captain America: Civil War and now I don’t know if I can stand by that. It’s become clear now that the Winter Soldier tie-in from season one was necessary to bridge the continuity between the films and television show. You can’t have an MCU where there is no SHIELD in the films and a fully functioning SHIELD on television (even if the show seems to be gradually moving in that direction). So the writers had to fully integrate their storylines with that of their film counterpart. That wasn’t necessary with Age of Ultron. That film had a plot that, while significant to the MCU, didn’t immediately affect the series’ storyline the way collapsing the whole title agency did with The Winter Soldier. So the writers got away with a couple of passing references toAge of Ultron and got on with their story. But in hindsight, Age of Ultron was more significant to Agents of SHIELD than we initially realized. It resulted in the ATCU being brought into the fold, and it brought SHIELD back onto the radar of the government in a good way.

Now we’ve come to Civil War, and it should have a plot that reverberates throughout the rest of the MCU, including Agents of SHIELD. It might be subtle at first; we might spend the next few weeks after that film’s release talking about how AoS barely even acknowledged its events, but it will impact the show. As this series delves more and more into the superhero realm, there will have to be consequences for the actions of the Inhumans and whatever powered people pop up going forward. The series might even get its own version of the Superhuman Registration Act from the comic book. But one thing’s for sure, I’m comfortable predicting that I was wrong when I said there won’t be any significant Civil War tie-in.